Men, men, men. All kinds of men are in new TV shows tonight — Madigan Men, paranoid Trouble with Normal men and C.S.I. investigative men.

        But the one not to miss is that guy back on the run.

        The Fugitive (8 p.m., Channels 12, 7): If you're going to catch just one new TV drama, catch The Fugitive.

        CBS' new high-tech action series is a worthy successor to the legacy started by David Janssen on ABC (1963-67), and revived with Harrison Ford on the big screen (1993).

Mykelti Williamson (left) and Tim Daly star in The Fugitive (CBS photo)

        We're all familiar with the story: Dr. Kimble (Tim Daly, Wings) claims he's innocent of killing his wife (Kelly Rutherford), who he says was murdered by a mysterious one-armed man. On the way to prison, Kimble escapes from Lt. Philip Gerard (Mykelti Williamson, Forrest Gump).

        The lavish $5 million pilot follows Kimble from Chicago to Cleveland to Nashville to Miami as he tracks reports of a one-armed assailant in newspaper stories posted on the Internet.

        When Gerard sees Kimble's face on an ATM surveillance tape, one of many modern electronic devices used in the show, the detective declares: “We've got ourselves a manhunt!”

        Actually, it's two manhunts — involving three fiercely determined men, each on his own mission. It's also a doctor show (Kimble saves the life of a building inspector in the pilot). And two great chases.

        The Fugitive will continue on location across America — Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Philadelphia and Atlantic City, to name a few places.

        Without giving too much away, I can report that Kimble catches a glimpse of the one-armed man (Stephen Lang) in tonight's episode. It's enough to keep him going — and to keep us watching for years.

Trouble with new shows brewing

       

        ABC's new sitcom tells us that there's Trouble with Normal. There's also trouble with four other new shows:

        The Trouble with Normal (8:30 p.m., Channels 9, 2): Much has been written about the death of the sitcom format. Exhibit A would be The Trouble with Normal.

        Think of this as Four Guys and a Paranoid Place. David Krumholtz (The Santa Clause) Jon Cryer (Partners), Larry Joe Campbell and Brad Raider star as guys who think the world is conspiring against them through ATMs, computers and surveillance cameras.

        Helping them cope with their fears is a therapist (Paget Brewster, Love and Money) whose love life is wrecked by these guys constantly barging into her home.

        This might make a Saturday Night Live sketch — but a 13-week series? No way.

        C.S.I. (9 p.m., Channels 12, 7): We've seen Crime Scene Investigators (C.S.I.) on TV, the folks combing a crime scene when detectives like Andy Sipowicz arrive. So CBS has given them their own show.

        William Petersen (The Rat Pack), Gary Dourdan, George Eads and Marg Helgenberger (China Beach) play Las Vegas forensics investigators, which local police call “the nerd squad.”

        Maybe it's because of reports that Gil Grissom (Mr. Petersen) uses human blood in his lab experiments. Or because squad members zealously claim that crime-solving makes them “feel like King Kong on cocaine.”

        Viewers may wonder what drugs Anthony Zuiker (a former Las Vegas tram guide) ingested while writing this show. How Gil solves the murder mystery is too implausible, and I don't need a discussion about anal swabs. In my book, C.S.I. is DOA.

        FreakyLinks (9 p.m., Channels 19, 45): Blair Witch Project producer Gregg Hale delivers some chills, but the FreakyLinks pilot has more holes in it than Fox's prime-time schedule.

        Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do), Lizette Carrion and Karim Prince (413 Hope Street) star as dot-com detectives exploring the paranormal. (How do they make a living from this Web site?)

        Derek (Mr. Embry) gets an e-mail showing that his twin brother Adam, dead for two years, may still be alive. So Derek and Adam's old girlfriend (Lisa Sheridan) search Adam's big old haunted house, which wasn't sold after his death. (How convenient.)

        Along the way — often filmed in jerky Blair Witch hand-held video style — they meet Vince (Dennis Christopher, Breaking Away) in a psychiatric ward. He tells them about evil spirits that killed the Roanoke Colony 500 years ago. Fox's FreakyLinks commercials give away the ending by showing the spirits' markings all over Adam's house. (Don't blame me!)

        As Vince tells Derek: “There are a lot worse things than being dead.” Like being canceled?

        Madigan Men (9:30 p.m., Channels 9, 2): In 20 minutes, ABC exploits all cliches of the Irish, their penchant for proverbs, whiskey and wagering. (Oh, the luck of the Irish!)

        Gabriel Byrne (End of Days) plays a divorced New York architect raising a teen-age son (John Hensley, The Sopranos). Their peaceful apartment is disrupted when Grandpa Seamus (Roy Dotrice, Beauty and the Beast) arrives from Dublin spouting nonsensical adages. (“A windy day is not the day for thatching.”)

        Ben's (Mr. Byrne) workplace relationship feels forced with Alex (Grant Shaud, Murphy Brown). The home life of the Madigan Men actually has some charm — if there wasn't so much Blarney.

        The District (10 p.m. Saturday, Channels 12, 7): Unlike his dim-witted Coach, Craig T. Nelson's new TV character has all the answers.

        He's Jack Mannion, the new Washington, D.C., police chief, based on former New York Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Maple, who helped create the series.

        Mannion shakes up the corrupt D.C. force by using computer-generated maps showing high crime areas. His few allies include the deputy mayor (Jayne Brook, Chicago Hope) and the crime statistics guru (Lynne Thigpen, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?). They even put up with him singing Broadway tunes, a quirk the show could do without.

        As much as I liked Mannion, I felt uneasy about the ignored racial undercurrent. Can only a white man clean up corruption in the administration of an African-American mayor (John Amos) and deputy police chief (Roger Aaron Brown)?

        Returning shows: Season premieres also air Friday for: Two Guys and a Girl (8 p.m., Channels 9, 2); 20/20 (10 p.m., Channels 9, 2); Nash Bridges (10 p.m., Channels 12, 7); and Fox's Police Videos, formerly the World's Wildest Police Videos (8 p.m., Channels 19, 45).

        Walker, Texas Ranger returns Saturday (9 p.m., Channels 12, 7).

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